Oval Office meeting that spiralled into White House crisis

20 May 2017

Russian state agency Tass quickly posted pictures that have since become infamous, of Mr Trump, Mr Lavrov and Mr Kislyak smiling and apparently sharing jokes, at a time when Russia had been accused by U.S. intelligence of interfering in last year's USA election and the May 7 French presidential election as well.

In a freaky twist on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to turn over to Congress records of Trump's discussions.

Mr Putin told a news conference that he would be willing to turn over notes of Mr Trump's meeting with the Russian diplomats if the White House agreed.

The legal noose is tightening around President Donald Trump's neck. It's vital that Congress establish, and quickly, whether Trump sought to pervert the process by putting undue pressure on an employee. It would have been normal for a Russian foreign minister to meet the US President.

"I was just being honest", Curbelo said Wednesday in an interview with the Miami Herald, in which he called impeachment still "premature".

Asked about the memo and a shift in strategy on Air Force One Wednesday, press secretary Sean Spicer repeatedly pointed to the statement, declining to elaborate.

Senate Republicans argue House and Senate intelligence committees' investigations are continuing to proceed with bipartisan support, and that that they should be the primary vehicles for the investigation.

The last two weeks have been an unmitigated disaster for Mr. Trump's team, stalling their legislative agenda on Capitol Hill and potentially threatening Mr. Trump's presidency.

Rep Jason Chaffetz, Republican chairperson of the House oversight committee, sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday requesting that it turn over all documents and recordings that detail communications between Comey and Trump.

But US officials pointed to Mr Tillerson's Kremlin meeting and the need for reciprocity. According to the story, Comey documented the conversation in memos.

John McCain, chairperson of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said late on Tuesday that the developments had reached "Watergate size and scale". And then everyone said it looks like he is not a very good as a lawyer because he is just making the case against himself, but there was always some question whether or not it could be interpreted in an innocent way.

The person who described the Comey memo was not authorised to discuss it by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The intelligence was originally gathered by Israel, the New York Times said, and pertained to an Islamic State plot to hide bombs in laptops to blow up civilian aircraft. He did the same after a series of conversations with Dean later that month in which the White House counsel asked Walters if the Central Intelligence Agency could pay for the bail or the salaries of the Watergate burglars.

Trump fired Flynn on February 13, on grounds that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with Russians.

Republicans outside the White House also hope the trip provides some breathing room from scandal. It is the kind of conversation that seems completely in character for Trump, who, over the course of the campaign and now in office, has betrayed no - zero - understanding of the necessary separation of the president and his Justice Department when it comes to making independent judgments about political matters and political opponents.

Colorado's mountains get up to 42 inches of snowAs the storm system moved, it dropped heavy, wet snow that reached accumulations upwards of two feet in some spots. Other areas of Colorado received just as much snow during the late-season storm.

"Today, the Committee sent two additional letters seeking information related to the Committee's ongoing investigation".